ORDER :

Mr. B. Siddeswaran learned counsel on record for the applicant is before this Court. Instant application has been filed under Section 9(1)(ii)(a) of ‘The Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996’ (hereinafter ‘A and C Act’ for brevity).

2. The case of the applicant as can be culled out from the case file placed before this court, more particularly, from the affidavit filed in support of instant application and from the submissions made by learned counsel for applicant is that the nucleus of the application is a ‘loan agreement bearing No.CV2882167 dated 28.04.2015’ (hereinafter the ‘said loan agreement’ for the sake of brevity, clarity and convenience). It is submitted that the applicant has taken a loan qua a ‘truck bearing registration no.TN-28-AJ-5257’ (hereinafter ‘said truck’ for the sake of brevity, clarity and convenience).

3. It is submitted that there is an arbitration clause in said loan agreement and therefore, there is an arbitration agreement between the applicant and the respondent being an arbitration agreement within the meaning of Section 7 of the A and C Act.

4. Applicant submits that respondent has already invoked the aforementioned arbitration clause/arbitration agreement between the parties complaining of alleged default in repayment of loan taken by the applicant under said loan agreement and thus raising an arbitral dispute in this regard. With regard to this aspect of the matter, a communication dated 31.10.2019 from the respondent is relevant and the same is as follows:

5. There is no disputation or contestation by the applicant regarding the aforesaid communication dated 31.10.2019 having been received by the applicant on 04.11.2019. Therefore, even according to the applicant’s averments, the arbitral proceedings qua said loan agreement commenced on 04.11.2019. To be noted, though the language in which Section 21 of the A and C Act is couched states that the communication should be a request for the arbitral dispute to be referred to arbitration, in the instant case, the communication qua appointment of sole arbitrator has not been disputed by the applicant who received the communication on 04.11.2019. Be that as it may, what is of greater significance is, the Arbitral Tribunal (constituted by sole arbitrator) has already entered upon the reference, as this court is informed that Arbitral Tribunal, post receipt of aforementioned 31.10.2019 communication, has issued notice to both parties (applicant and respondent) and also held sittings. To be precise in terms of dates in this regard, it is submitted that the sole arbitrator who constituted the arbitral tribunal has admittedly sent a communication dated 06.11.2019 fixing the hearing date for a preliminary meeting on 27.11.2019, (2.30 p.m.) and the venue has also been set out in the communication and it reads as follows:

Room No.4, 1st Floor, “Mubarak Plaza”, No.260/128, Angappan Naicken Street, Parrys, Chennai – 600 001.

6. There is also no dispute that the first sitting of the Arbitral Tribunal was held on 27.11.2019 and on that date, it stood adjourned to 12.12.2019. More importantly, an application has been filed by the applicant before the Arbitral Tribunal with a prayer for interim direction. It is the case of the applicant that said truck was repossessed by the respondent on 23.11.2019 and therefore, an interlocutory application was moved before the Arbitral Tribunal seeking an ad interim direction to direct the respondent to hand over possession of the said truck. This application is admittedly pending. With regard to the narrative thus far, most relevant parts of the affidavit filed in support of the instant application are contained in paragraph Nos. 3, 5 and 9.

Paragraph No.3 of the affidavit reads as follows :

I submit that I the claim petition in Arbitration Ref No.KMBL/CV/2882167/1172 of 2019 has been filed by the respondent. I have received a notice from the Arbitrator dated 06.11.2019 directing me to appear before the Tribunal on 27.11.2019